A classic day at the Fair

Classic and custom cars, trucks, and motorcycles filled the Verizon Center of Progress last weekend for the eighteenth annual International Auto Show Case, a traditional kick-off to the "crusin' season" in Central New York.

The custom and classic car and trade show, produced by International Auto Show Case Inc., is well known by area enthusiasts as the unofficial beginning of the car show season and largest of it's kind in the state.

Bob and Carmella Hoffman, owners of International Auto Show Case Inc., began producing the annual event 18 years ago, but the show has been held for 44 years, originally known as Motor-Rama.

Though the show is a staple in the region, Bob Hoffman said there is always a variety of cars that have not been seen before in central New York. Participants from across the county and the Canadian border have exhibited cars in past years.

John Carnowski of Brewerton was showing his 1957 Chevrolet BelAir, a car he has owned and worked on since he was 16. Like many other participants, he remembers visiting the show in the Motor-Rama days, and only shows his car at the IASC.

"This is the big one for me, Carnowski said. "As a young kid I always said to myself, 'I'm going to have a car and have it in this show."

Camillus resident Ed Kolceski, on the other hand, takes his cars all summer to different shows. Kolceski, whose father worked for General Motors, said he has been playing with cars since he was 16, and often takes his granddaughter along with him to shows.

"This is my granddaughter's doing," said Kolceski of the plastic hambuger and french fries scattered on a drive-in tray protruding from a window on his 1956 Bel Air. The tray and Trunk Monkey sitting in the passenger's seat are original, Kolceski said.